Chinese Regions Adopt Differentiated Strategies to Boost New Quality Productive Forces

Provinces and municipalities across China are rolling out targeted policies to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces, aligning with local 15th Five-Year Plan guidelines and leveraging unique industrial foundations and resource endowments. Diverse policy packages covering financial innovation, industrial scenario opening and cross-regional collaboration are being implemented to fuel high-quality economic advancement with tailored growth drivers.

Local governments have formed unified consensus on prioritising technological innovation to nurture emerging industrial momentum and upgrade traditional sectors through deep integration of digital and real economies. While committing to building modernised industrial systems nationwide, regional authorities are adopting differentiated development paths to avoid homogeneous competition and optimise the overall national industrial layout.

Eastern coastal regions, endowed with robust scientific research capabilities, high-end talent reserves and mature industrial ecosystems, are focusing on cutting-edge strategic industries. These areas prioritise original technological breakthroughs and high-end industrial clustering in artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biomedicine and commercial aerospace. Jiangsu, for instance, plans to advance the construction of a comprehensive innovation centre for embodied intelligent robots and build a brain-computer interface industrial cluster during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Guangdong is fostering a multi-level fund system covering angel investment, venture capital and S funds to support whole-chain technological innovation.

Central industrial provinces capitalise on solid manufacturing foundations and superior geographical transportation conditions, focusing on undertaking high-quality industrial transfers and expanding real economy clusters. Key development directions include intelligent equipment, new energy vehicles and advanced precision manufacturing. Hunan is targeting breakthroughs in high-speed motors, semiconductor component manufacturing and extreme-condition precision production to strengthen its advanced manufacturing hub status.

Western and inland resource-based regions are exploring distinctive transformation paths by converting energy, mineral and ecological advantages into new productive forces. Qinghai concentrates on applied basic research centred on salt lake resources, clean energy and plateau characteristic industries, fostering green and sustainable industrial systems tailored to local conditions.

Balanced government guidance and market allocation underpins the rational regional layout. Market mechanisms guide industrial division and resource aggregation, while institutional optimisation and infrastructure upgrades reduce transaction costs and prevent resource misallocation. The diversified regional approaches aim to build an efficient, secure and collaborative national industrial network rather than duplicated standalone industrial systems.

Financial innovation stands as a key measure to unlock growth potential. Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone has launched four new industrial investment funds with a total scale of 20 billion yuan, targeting integrated circuits, intelligent manufacturing, biotech and future industries to boost funding for early-stage hard technology projects. Customised financial products such as scenario-based loans have been introduced in multiple regions to ease financing difficulties for tech startups.

Cross-regional industrial coordination is being strengthened to break institutional barriers. The Yangtze River Delta has launched joint application campaigns for key industrial products and technologies, promoting integrated innovation among upstream and downstream industrial players. Ongoing improvements to data element circulation systems and cross-regional research resource sharing mechanisms will further lower R&D costs for small and medium-sized tech enterprises, facilitate inter-provincial industrial cooperation, and consolidate the data and computing foundation for intelligent industrial upgrading across the country.